


Lessons Learned

by mickeym



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: Grief/Mourning, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Off-screen Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-18
Updated: 2008-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-13 00:25:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1206010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mickeym/pseuds/mickeym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some lessons are harder learned than others.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons Learned

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for _Love Among the Runes_.
> 
> This isn't a new work; in fact, it's six years old. But I'm trying to (slowly but surely) get everything transferred over here.

_No, first thing we ever did together was the Volkovitch job, over in Kezmekistan or wherever._

They didn't know each other by names, then, because they didn't _have_ names. Just designations and units, and that was enough. That was all they needed. They were fellow soldiers there to fight a war. Quell an uprising. Take out one power, replace it with another. 

X5-511. 

Biggs. 

Friend.

Sometimes more than just a friend.

_Oh, yeah, that's right. Ooh, the off-hours were definitely the highlight of that mission._

Lola was always up for a good time, but even she couldn't keep up indefinitely with two hot-blooded, in-their-prime transgenic males. Sometimes Alec wondered if she didn't pretend to be tired, just so she could watch him and Biggs together. 

Once in a while they bypassed Lola altogether and spent the night, just the two of them, tangled together beneath thermal blankets, the wind outside shaking their tent canvas. 

Biggs always tasted like chocolate and cinnamon, his lips warm and soft moving over Alec's skin. Alec thought he could happily spend hours kissing and touching Biggs, though they never got that long. Just stolen moments here and there, vanishing altogether when the mission was completed.

They weren't in love, but they shared a connection that even reindoctrination and time in Psy-Ops couldn't erase.

Biggs was the closest thing to a friend that Alec had before they were turned loose out into the world.

_Hey. You won't believe what just happened to me._

Even hardcore, trained soldiers could be shocked; could be horrified. That was all Alec felt at first, looking at Biggs' body, hung upside down and displayed like a side of beef.

No one deserved to go out like that. In the dim, flickering light from the burning X, Alec could make out Biggs' face, swollen and bloody from the beating. It made Alec's stomach turn, sour bile burning upward, flooding his mouth.

The trained killer inside him wanted vengeance; wanted blood.

Alec just wanted his friend back.

_I've got a problem with that._

Beating the crap out of those guys made him feel better for a few minutes. The sharp sting of impact, bone against bone, and flesh splitting, giving way. Hearing their grunts and whimpers, and the stink of fear all around them eased some of the ache in Alec's chest. 

But afterward, after he and Joshua walked away, leaving those lowlifes cowering in the street…Biggs was still dead. Still gone.

And he had a real problem with that. 

Manticore prepared him -- prepared all of them -- for a lot of things. A lot of scenarios. There were lessons all the time; everything was a potential learning experience.

It never taught him how to deal with losing yet another person he cared for.

~fin~


End file.
